A blog covering all matters refereeing, the Premier League, Football League, Scottish football and occasionally European football

Spurs drown Swans with late Eriksen winner

CHRISTIAN Eriksen’s 89th minute strike gave Tottenham another late Premier League away win as Swansea suffered only a second home defeat of the season.

Harry Kane scores fourth league goal of season

Christian Eriksen claims first assist of the season

Wilfried Bony takes tally to eight goals in last 10 games

Swansea suffer first home defeat since Southampton in September

Spurs won six of last seven meetings with the Swans

CHRISTIAN Eriksen’s late winner moved Tottenham into seventh in the Premier League as Swansea suffered only a second home defeat of the season.

The Danish international fired into the bottom corner from the edge of the box in the 89th minute to ensure Mauricio Pochettino’s team leapfrogged their opponents in the table.

Harry Kane gave the visitors a fourth-minute lead with his 12th goal of the season by heading home Eriksen’s corner.

Swansea – who were dominant for long periods – equalised early in the second half through top scorer Wilfried Bony from close range.

Setback: Monk – in his first match as a manager against Spurs – thought there would be “only one winner” in the second half

But Garry Monk’s side remain ninth in the table after the late sucker-punch condemned them to back-to-back defeats following last weekend’s 3-1 loss at West Ham.

Spurs have now won all four away games with last-gasp goals this season including two of the last three – against Hull City and Aston Villa most recently.

Kane and Eriksen were again the stand-out performers for the north London outfit, who are now just four points behind the Champions League qualification places.

Star of the show: Kane has been hugely impressive since breaking into the Spurs first team

The former could have had a penalty in the first half when he went down in the box under the challenge from Ashley Williams but referee Robert Madley was unimpressed.

The 21-year-old could have added to his fourth league goal of the season in stoppage time when presented with a run at goal but could not convert.

Eriksen forced a smart save from Swansea’s stand-in keeper Gerhard Tremmel – on his first league start of the season in place of the suspended Lukasz Fabianski – moments before his decisive strike at the Liberty Stadium.

Return: 36-year-old Tremmel appeared between the sticks for Swansea for the first time since May 11

Tottenham – who gave Kyle Walker his first league appearance since March after injury – had made nine changes from their Europa League defeat by Besiktas on Thursday night.

But it was Swansea – who have never beaten Spurs in the Premier League in seven attempts – that made a sloppy start as Kane rose above Angel Rangel six yards out to end their three-game wait for a goal.

Breakthrough: England Under-21 striker Kane powered home his first goal since November 23

But the Welsh side excelled throughout the first half in the pouring rain with Bony – on his 50th Premier League appearance – guilty of passing up several promising openings.

The Tottenham transfer target was foiled by a fine save from Hugo Lloris – on his 100th Spurs outing – and a splendid recovery tackle from former Swansea left-back Ben Davies.

Although the Ivorian found the net just three minutes after the break, following up once his initial effort from Wayne Routledge’s centre had been blocked for his ninth of the season.

Swansea – with ex-Spurs man Gylfi Sigurdsson in their ranks – remained in the ascendancy as Jefferson Montero and substitute Jonjo Shelvey went close before Ki Sung-Yeung flashed a header over the crossbar.

Content: Spurs gaffer Mauricio Pochettino was pleased with the character his side showed in south Wales

With 12 minutes to go, Kane gave a warning to the Swansea defence when nodding inches wide of the left-hand post from Nabil Bentaleb’s centre.

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